WarioWare: Touched!
WarioWare: Touched!, known in Japan as Sawaru Made In Wario (さわる メイドインワリオ, Sawaru Meido in Wario, lit. "Touching Made in Wario") is a game for the Nintendo DS, and the fourth game in the WarioWare series. The game contains microgames are based on touching the touch screen with the stylus. There are several characters in the game, and each one has their own style of microgames, a concept introduced in its predecessor, WarioWare: Twisted!. New major characters, Ashley and Red and Mike, are introduced in this game. In addition, the game includes many "mix characters" - characters whose games are taken from normal characters. Besides the microgames, the game also includes special souvenirs, similar to its predecessor, won by achieving certain tasks (like scoring a certain amount of points in a specific game). Like WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! and WarioWare: Twisted!, the music and sound effects were taken from Wario Land 4. The game was released in December 2, 2004 in Japan. In North America and Australia, it was actually released before WarioWare: Twisted!, and with Europe not getting WarioWare: Twisted!, in terms of chronological release dates specifically to these regions, it is the third game in the WarioWare series. The game was re-released as a Wii U Virtual Console title in North American, Japanese, Europe and Australia in April 2015. My Nintendo members were able to redeem the game as a Nintendo 3DS-exclusive DSiWare download for 1,000 Platinum Points from March until July 2016.WARIOWARE TOUCHED! AVAILABLE AS 3DS DOWNLOAD FOR MY NINTENDO MEMBERS. GoNintendo. Retrieved March 17, 2016. The DSiWare version is currently unavailable, with no indication whether it will be re-introduced via My Nintendo at another point in time. It has been regarded by game journalists as one of the games which best utilizes the features of the Nintendo DS, alongside others such as Kirby: Canvas Curse, Nintendogs, and Metroid Prime Hunters. Plot Wario is walking down a street after having proudly stolen a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP, but then he suddenly trips and drops both systems down a manhole. The Sewer Guru then flies up from the hole holding not only the two handheld systems but also a Nintendo DS, and he asks Wario which one he dropped. Wario replies, "Gimme all of 'em!" and lunges at the Sewer Guru, knocking both of them down the manhole. After a brief scuffle Wario emerges with the Nintendo DS. Wario immediately notices that the handheld has two screens, but finds it more peculiar that there are no buttons. Not knowing how to play it, Wario loses a Whack-a-Mole minigame and shakes it angrily, thinking that the device does not work. However, the stylus flies out into his hand, and Wario suddenly realizes that he must use it to tap the bottom screen. He wins the minigame and then realizes he could make double the profit out of this double-screened apparatus, and so he uses it to make touch-style microgames. Gameplay WarioWare: Touched! plays very similarly to most games in the WarioWare series: players play a randomized grouping of very small, short minigames (called "microgames") within a small time limit and a very brief set of instructions. Periodically, the game speeds up the microgame, thus shortening the time and making it more challenging and pressuring to complete the microgames within the time limit. Players start with four tries every time they start a stage. If they lose a microgame, they lose a try; when players lose all four of their tries, the game ends and players must start over from the beginning. Players earn points for every microgame that comes (winning or losing the microgame does not factor into points gained); at the fifteenth point, players play a boss microgame, which is considerably longer and more challenging than a typical microgame. One major change made to WarioWare: Touched! compared to previous games is the duration of the microgames. In WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! and WarioWare: Twisted!, every regular microgame started with a length of 8 beats (with Orbulon's microgames in both games being half the current BPM and Fronk's games in WarioWare: Twisted! being double of it). WarioWare: Touched! does away with the concept of microgames having a standardized length, as every microgame in a set are of a different duration and are longer on average than those in the previous games. A unique feature of WarioWare: Touched! compared to other WarioWare games is the touch screen and microphone feature of the Nintendo DS. WarioWare: Touched! does not make use of any of the face buttons (except to pause and a few souvenirs); as such, all inputs by the player are received via touch on the touchscreen or blowing into the microphone. Characters All the characters in WarioWare get their own microgames. Below is a list of the characters and stages. The first set of microgames the player must complete is always Wario's set. As the player completes more stages, more characters appear in the Games menu. Finally, each stage automatically ends after the player completes the boss stage, but subsequent playthroughs of a stage are continuous, with microgames becoming more difficult after completing a boss stage, until the player has no more tries. Players can get more tries by completing a boss stage, but the maximum number of tries is always four. Each character hosts a set of microgames and comes with an individual story dedicated to them. At the end of each story, the respective character meets with the other ones at the Hawt House. Characters from microgame sets do not introduce any new microgames or any specific touch control, but they mix up microgames from previous employees as described. Main Characters *Wario *Mona *Jimmy T. *Kat *Ana *Ashley *Dr. Crygor *Mike *9-Volt *18-Volt *Papa T. *Mama T. *Jamie T. *James T. *Warioman Minor Characters (in alphabetical order) *Art & Decko *Bridget the Baker *Dribble & Spitz *Dr. Payne *Joe *Ken *Luna *Orbulon *Sal Out *Vanessa Microgames Wario (Touch Training) *Party Popper *Pet Peeved *Waste with Haste *Big Bang *Taping a Leak *Sleepy Head *Up for Grabs *Tune Out *Freak Mutation *Bug Eyed *Lose Your Marble *Wrap Sheet *Swamp Things *Number Cruncher *Perfect Match *Housewares *Profiler *Into the Sunset *Character Development *Accountant Assault *Rump Roast *You Break It, You Buy It Mona (Cute Cuts) *Steel Chef *Clog It *Snivel Disobedience *Zoooooooo *Blowin' Up *Running of the Bull's-eye *Sinking Feeling *Star Struck *Face-Lift *Cage Match *Straight Faces *No Love for You *Quite Puzzled *Pass Agressive *Tuft It Out *Sweeping Victory *Fresh Squeezed *Got the Chops *It Slices, It Dices *Middle Management *Pro Bowling Jimmy T. (Dance Club Rub) *Impressionism *Shakedown *Pet Petter *Arms Race *Chalk Full *Oh, Snap! *Scratch and Match *Wishful Thinking *Power Chord *Dish It *Early Release *Ick Magnet *Drama Clean *Touchdown *Public Transportation *Burning Rubber *Sweet Sorrow *Washed Up *Erosion *Worked to a Lather *Rainbow Juice Kat & Ana (Ninja Scribble) *Finger Painting *Long Division *Domestic Issue *Feeling Saucy *One-Liner *Finish Line *Hair Supply *Bright Idea *What's Your Sign? *Divide and Conquer *Write On, Dude *Hookin' Up *Corrections Officer *Midnight Weirdo *The Proud, the Fuse *Ring Master *Shoo! *In the Loop *Hi, Wire! *Ramp It Up *Galaxy Bounce Ashley (Total Drag) *Separation Anxiety *Farm Fresh *Basket Case *Greedy Hands *I'm #1! *Rock Fever *On Strike *Drop in a Bucket *Sugar Rush *Pipe Dream *Birdcicle *Sneeze, Please! *Fatapult *Catch of the Day *Cheap Thrill *Fill 'Er Up *Don't Blow It *Chance of Showers *Oh, the Irony *Very Attractive *Global Warning Dr. Crygor (Slightly Unscrewed) *Free Range *Heads Will Roll *Space Buffet *Big as a Whale *Watered Down *Goin' Loopy *Engine Trouble *Catch a Tune *Unwind *Stroke of Genius *Drop the Ball *Track and Field *Straight to Video *Fried Goodness *Good Times *I'm Gonna Hurl *Flower to Tower *Gym Locker *Spin a Yarn *Luna-see *Living Room Rally Mike (Mic Rocking) *Spindy Day *Sweet Nothings *Pop Art *Call of Nature *Cup Runneth Over *Winter Fresh *Light Sleeper *Admiral Blowhard *Cool It *Rising Inflation *Crowd Control *Deep Breath *Abdominal Blowman *Clearing the Air *Lung Capacity *In Your Face *Silent but Deadly *Hit the Gust *Over Easy *On the Fly *Seedy Area 9-Volt (Retro Action) *Super Mario Bros. *The Legend of Zelda *Duck Hunt *Metroid *Game & Watch - Toss Up *Pushing Buttons *''Mario Paint'' *Game On *8-Bit Hero *Game & Watch - Flagman *Gold Digger *''Super Mario Bros.'' *Button Masher *Game & Watch - Oil Panic *Clawing for More *''Donkey Kong 3'' *Balloon Fight *Hogan's Alley *Game & Watch - Lion *Famicom *Gunslinger Warioman (Super Zero) *Bubble Head *You Scratch Mine *Hot Flash *Launch Line *Scrambled Egg *Short Fuse *Spario *Where's Wario *Air Male *Wanna Slice? *Nitpicking *Fan Fair *Daily Grind *Feel the Beat *Domino Theory *Upper Cut *Dead Simon Says *Buried Treasure *It'll Grow Back *The Crate Escape *Being Nosy Development Around the time WarioWare: Twisted! was in development, the team was presented with the Nintendo DS, who thought the touchscreen and the stylus were a perfect match for developing a WarioWare game.Iwata Asks: WarioWare: Smooth Moves As the series core staff was already busy with WarioWare: Twisted!, the team split, and the game was primarily developed by staff new to the series. Producer Yoshio Sakamoto had to scramble to find a director for the project.Iwata Asks: Yoshio Sakamoto's GDC '10 Keynote. Nintendo. At the beginning, there was a lack of unified awareness among the new staff to "what made WarioWare funny" and as such, WarioWare: Twisted!'s staff was transferred to WarioWare: Touched! following the completion of the title to help complete the game for the Nintendo DS's launch. The game was developed in a very short period of time, five months, and was released relatively alongside of WarioWare: Twisted!.Kikizo: Nintendo R&D1 Interview April 7, 2006. Video Games Daily. Reception Critical reception WarioWare: Touched! has received generally positive reviews from critics. Aggregate sites Metacritic and GameRankings has given a score of 81 based of reviews of 54 critics and a score of 81.83% from 63 critics respectively.[http://www.metacritic.com/game/ds/warioware-touched! Metacritic score for WarioWare: Touched!] Metacritic. Retrieved October 9, 2015.[http://www.gamerankings.com/ds/920757-warioware-touched/index.html GameRankings score for WarioWare: Touched!] GameRankings. Retrieved October 9, 2015. As with most WarioWare titles, it is praised for its addictive nature, its quirky and bizarre theme, the replaybility and the intuitive use of the touchscreen and other features of the Nintendo DS. The most common criticism is that the game is very short, where it can be fully beaten within a few hours. IGN writer, Craig Harris, has mostly praised the game, who gave the game a score of 8.5 out of ten, but commented that WarioWare: Twisted! is a superior game to WarioWare: Touched!. However, he ended with saying, "Wario Ware Touched! may be an incredibly brief experience, but it's still one of the top titles in the Nintendo DS library. At the very least it gives a great insight into gameplay ideas that the touchscreen and dual-screen handheld's capable of, even in these quick and extraordinarily brief five-second shots."Harris, Craig (February 11, 2005). [http://www.ign.com/articles/2005/02/11/wario-ware-touched Review of WarioWare: Touched!.] IGN. Retrieved October 9, 2015. Stuart Reddick, from Nintendo Life has given the game a 9/10, who greatly praised the game and commented on "how simplicity can still lead to stunning gameplay." and called it one of the best titles on the Nintendo DS.Reddick, Stuart. (June 14th, 2006). [http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/ds/warioware_touched Review of WarioWare: Touched!.] Nintendo Life. Retrieved October 9, 2015. Sales As of April and June 2007, WarioWare: Touched! has sold 2.15m units worldwide as reported by IGN.Casamassina, Matt (July 25, 2007). Nintendo Sales Update IGN. Retrieved October 9, 2015. Awards The game has received an Editor's Choice award from IGN. Pre-release and unused content An unused place-holder character sheet can be found in the game's data, most likely serving as a template for the overworld character sprites. Some place-holder graphics for souvenirs serve a similar purpose. TEST BOSS is a microgame used for testing boss microgames. It is simply Quite Puzzled, but with a different name. BREAK ELEVATOR is an unused intermission scene for elevator characters (the bear characters). It is a blank pink screen for localized versions of the game, but Japanese versions of the game has Japanese text that translates to "Taking a rest! BREAK!". References to other games *Various games: 9-Volt's microgame mix references various retro Mario games, including Super Mario Bros., Mario Paint, and Donkey Kong 3. *''Mario Paint'' - Wario Paint is a souvenir that is based on this game. The main theme is also a playable music in the Turntable souvenir. *''Wario Land 4'' - Some of Wario's voice clips and other sound effects are recycled from this game. *''WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!'' - Gold Digger reappears as a microgame, including in Game Boy Advance format. *''WarioWare: Twisted!'' - Souvenirs, which are introduced in this game, make a return. The souvenir, Mona Pizza, plays the same song in Mona's story microgames. *''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'' - A Red Chomp appears in the souvenir Reel-to-Reel. References in later games *''WarioWare: Smooth Moves'' - Dr. Crygor uses his design from this game rather than his original design. *''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' - Lose Your Marble and Blowin' Up appear as one of the random microgames in the WarioWare, Inc. stage. Ashley's and Mike's songs also appear as separate music in My Music. Various character artwork also appear as stickers in this game. *''Game & Wario'' - The minigame Ashley features a cover version of Ashley's original theme song. The boy and the girl from Hookin' Up occasionally appear after clearing a Patchwork puzzle. *''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U'' - Ashley's song returns as a selectable music in the Gamer stage. Trivia *In Nintendo Power V189, there was an article entitled Real-Life Reenactments in which the editors pretended to act out some of the microgames in real life, giving the real life event and the microgame a Fun Factor rating and a Difficulty Rating. Obviously, the article was not meant to be taken seriously. References ES: WarioWare: Touched! Category:Nintendo DS games Category:Wario games Category:WarioWare games Category:2004 video games Category:2005 video games Category:Virtual Console games (Wii U, Nintendo DS) Category:DSiWare games Category:Intelligent Systems games Category:Nintendo games Category:Games published by Nintendo Category:2007 video games Category:Nintendo SPD games Category:Launch titles